The post-soviet country of Chernarus is struck by an unknown virus, turning the majority population into frenzied infected. Fighting over resources has bred a hostile mentality among survivors, driving what’s left of humanity to collapse. You are one of the few immune to the virus – how far will you go to survive?

DayZ is an unforgiving, authentic survival experience. Up to 60 survivors on a server engage in a completely unscripted gameplay scenario with no goals given, except for one: to survive as long as they can, by all means necessary. There are no superficial tips, way-points, built-in tutorials, or help given to players. Every decision matters, and every mistake can be lethal. If you die in DayZ, you lose all your character progress and start over, as the game features a permadeath concept.

With the need to manage your character's basic survival requirements and the looming danger of permadeath restarting your progress, DayZ is an exceptionally immersive game. Despite not directly featuring any storytelling mechanics, the post-apocalyptic open world of DayZ presents a unique online sandbox where every decision adds up, creating your own personal story. When all 60 players on a server engage in this completely unscripted survival scenario, the resulting emergent gameplay leads to intense player interactions — some action-packed and short, and some involving long, sophisticated roleplay with very real emotions that you remember long after.

Bohemia Interactive today announced the release of update 1.15 for DayZ which includes a number of small, but yet worthy additions and improvements to the game, including but not limited to: quality of life improvements, new weapons, new female character as well as new server management tools for server owners.

One of the biggest additions in the DayZ 1.15 update is the iconic AUR A1/AX bullpup rifle. It's light, maneuverable, but still oh so handy when it comes to causing carnage in a tight spot. Blast away to your heart's content! There are two variants to the rifle: the A1 with its fixed scope and 30 round magazine and the much more customizable AX edition which allows for a full variety of scopes and is compatible with standardized magazine sizes and even suppressors.

Also added is the somewhat familiar barbed wire baseball bat, all the rage for the apocalypse survivor looking to send a very clear message of intent.

There's nothing stringy about the addition of the new Hunter Vest, which offers only the best in both style and functionality. Zips, pockets, this thing has it all and it even looks fabulous!

There's a brand new female character is available via character selection in the main menu. Watch out boys, she's new, she's here, she's looking for you, and that's probably not a good thing.

There's a list of fixes/tweaks to good old quality of life in update 1.15. A major clipping issue has been resolved which affected all headgear and balaclavas. Head torches can now be assigned to the glasses inventory slot. Consumption and thresholds of water and energy have been tweaked. Audio feedback when switching a weapon's fire mode has been added.

In an effort to increase the immersive experience the previous red-colored vignette hit effect has been completely replaced by a more intuitive splash texture showing a variable effect to ascertain the direction and intensity of incoming damage.

New additional tools will be made available to server owners for both the PC and Console versions, allowing them to make simple yet powerful changes to the multiplayer experience: Build anywhere, weather manipulation, object spawning, feature adjustment, all these and more will add untold variety.

There's plenty of players, new and old, to find in  Update 1.15 and tons of new adventures for DayZ fans to enjoy.

Key Features

• Detailed, authentic backdrop of Chernarus, an open world terrain featuring 230 square kilometres of hand-crafted environment based on real life locations
• Real emotional experience driven by the emergent interactions of 60 players on the server, all fighting for survival by any means necessary
• Environmental dangers including the infected, dynamic weather, and animal predators
• Wide variety of complex survival mechanics - from hunting and crafting, through sophisticated injury simulation, to transferable diseases
• Persistent servers with complex loot economy, and the ability to build improvised bases
• Visceral, authentic gun play and melee combat systems
• Smooth and reactive character controller utilizing a detailed animation system
• Rewarding and authentic experience of driving vehicles for travel and material transport

DayZ is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.